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Thread: Recommend an Expert (or two)

  1. #1
    Council Member Abu Suleyman's Avatar
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    Default Recommend an Expert (or two)

    Gentlemen,

    It has been a while since I have posted, but I have been skulking in the background.

    I am currently working to organize a conference in DC dealing with (US) national security broadly defined, and we have hit a bit of a hiccup in looking for experts. One of the areas that we would like to discuss is strategy in Afghanistan, and the theoretical Afghanistan-like places where we might find ourselves involved militarily in the future.

    The one side of the argument is that we need to pursue COIN-esque strategies, much like in IZ, where we secure the populations with large numbers of troops, and so on. That side of the argument is easy to find people both inside and outside government who believe that, have credibility, and who are vociferous in that argument. The other side is the side that argues that there are just to many boots on the ground and that we need to tread a lot more lightly, or not at all. While there are some people in the government who believe that, and have spoken up, they seem to be less numerous, and also high ranking (ergo not available), and out side of government the ones I know of either do not "brief well" or lack a degree of credibility.

    What I am looking for are suggestions of people who we probably could get to sit as experts in a breakout session dealing with this topics (and potentially others that interest them) comprised of serious scholars, soldiers, and government personnel. Most importantly, these must be people who can actively argue their well point against smart and experienced opponents, with some claim to legitimacy in the security community, so no knee-jerk hippies, and so on. We are informally calling this portion of the conference our GS-14/5 sessions, to give you an idea of the level of audience and participants we are expecting.

    You can recommend yourself, and I would even like that, or send PM's if you prefer. We are hoping this conference will be well attended, and the readers of this board will likely feel right at home with most of the topics. I will of course post more details as they are available.
    Audentes adiuvat fortuna
    "Abu Suleyman"

  2. #2
    Council Member Fuchs's Avatar
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    ... , or not at all.
    Andrew Bacevich

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    Bacevich is a good choice. Why don't you also contact Gian Gentile? For a more subtle form of the argument, GEN (ret) John Abizaid. And our friend Wilf can make a really good argument...

    Cheers

    JohnT

  4. #4
    Council Member slapout9's Avatar
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    Default Not In Any Particular Order

    1-Colonel Robert C. Jones if he would be available at the time of the conference.

    2-John T. Fishel (highly recommend from reading his papers and he is right here at SWC)

    3-Tom Odom, (haven't heard from him lately at SWC also)

    4-Billy Jack-(just kidding, just kidding)

    5-The guy that wrote the book "Contra Cross" can't remember his name?

    6-Some of the CIA guys from Operation "Jawbreaker" they have retired in the open and appear to be available for those types of engagements.


    PS-How come you don't like Hippie types?
    Last edited by slapout9; 05-25-2010 at 05:00 PM. Reason: fix stuff

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    Some of the guys from the McChrystal review. Don't recall who all was on it --
    Tony Cordesman and Andrew Exum, I believe. LTG (Ret) Barno from NDU.

  6. #6
    Council Member bourbon's Avatar
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    In addition to Prof. Bacevich:

    Robert Pape
    Charles Pena
    Michael Scheuer

  7. #7
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
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    Paul Rogers, linked to the UK Bradford University Sch. of Peace Studies and his bio there:
    http://www.brad.ac.uk/peace/staff/ac...ssorPaulRogers/

    He regularly writes a good column on this: http://www.oxfordresearchgroup.org.u...thly_briefings

    Have a look through Kings of War website.
    davidbfpo

  8. #8
    Council Member Xenophon's Avatar
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    What I am looking for are suggestions of people who we probably could get to sit as experts in a breakout session dealing with this topics (and potentially others that interest them) comprised of serious scholars, soldiers, and government personnel.
    I'll assume that you left out Marines completely by accident. Quantico should have quite a few candidates. Dr. Mark Moyar at the Marine Corps University would be a good one.

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    In addition to several already mentioned, I would recommend Bernard Finel.
    Supporting "time-limited, scope limited military actions" for 20 years.

  10. #10
    Council Member Abu Suleyman's Avatar
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    These are all great. Thank you.
    Audentes adiuvat fortuna
    "Abu Suleyman"

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